Decision on Government Center tied to dollars, economic sense

Options include replacing or renovating; leasing space

The looming debate over the future of the shuttered Orange County Government Center in Goshen has been framed as a choice between two costly options: either completely overhauling the 41-year-old complex or demolishing and replacing it. But as County Executive Ed Diana prepares to lease quarters for displaced employees, one q...

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By CHRIS MCKENNA

recordonline.com

By CHRIS MCKENNA

Posted Sep. 21, 2011 at 2:00 AM

By CHRIS MCKENNA
Posted Sep. 21, 2011 at 2:00 AM

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The Orange County Government Center is closed indefinitely. Services formerly offered there are available at the following sites:

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Where to go for Services

The Orange County Government Center is closed indefinitely. Services formerly offered there are available at the following sites:

The looming debate over the future of the shuttered Orange County Government Center in Goshen has been framed as a choice between two costly options: either completely overhauling the 41-year-old complex or demolishing and replacing it.

But as County Executive Ed Diana prepares to lease quarters for displaced employees, one question is whether the county could avoid a huge expense by simply keeping workers in those rented offices and dispensing with the Government Center altogether.

Consider the relative costs:

Diana announced last year that the $114.4 million complex he wanted would cost taxpayers about $7.8 million a year for 30 years. The alternative, he argued then, would be roughly $72.4 million in renovations to the Government Center and seven other county buildings, costing around $6.3 million a year for 15 years.

Both options are even costlier in a forthcoming report on the county's construction options: $136.4 million for a new Government Center versus $103.3 million for building upgrades.

By contrast, renting offices in three buildings on nearby Matthews Street — as Diana plans to do as an interim step — could cost less than $1 million a year.

At that price, could leasing be a permanent solution for the county? How about buying the Matthews Street buildings? Or seeking space in the former Arden Hill and Horton hospitals, the closed Mid-Orange Correctional Facility or on the Middletown Psychiatric Center campus, as some Times Herald-Record readers have suggested?

Those are just a few potential alternatives, as county officials and legislators wade into a complex discussion that will likely deal primarily with the proposed costs for county taxpayers — but also with such factors as office placement, traffic, construction jobs and historic preservation.

Since closing the Government Center on Sept. 8 because of water and mold left by Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, the county has resolved its largest space need by moving its clerk's office — including the giant records room where title searchers pore over deeds and mortgages — to an empty building at the Valley View Center for Nursing Care and Rehabilitation in Goshen.

What remains is placing eight departments that occupy about 40,000 square feet in the Government Center, according to measurements Diana provided last year.

How much space is being sought on Matthews Street is unclear, but renting 40,000 square feet at $12.54 per square foot — the going rate at two of those buildings — would total about $500,000 a year.

Leigh Benton, chairman of the Legislature's committee that oversees county buildings, said Tuesday that he was open to discussing leasing as a permanent option. But he questioned how effective it would be to have county departments in different places — as they already are, to some extent.

"Part of the decision we will have to make is how far we want to go in re-centralizing" county offices, said Benton, R-Newburgh.

In the meantime, members of a citizens' group dedicated to preserving the Government Center — both for cost reasons and because it's an architectural landmark — have rushed to its defense, arguing that the recent storm damage has done nothing to justify Diana's renewed push for a new building.

"This building is absolutely repairable," said Harvey Berg, a retired architect and structural engineer who lives in Blooming Grove. "Even an expensive repair is cheaper than a new building."

During a meeting with county legislators last week, Diana and Middletown engineer Al Fusco warned that truly fixing the building would require removing the corrugated concrete blocks that form the distinctive exterior of the building, designed in the 1960s by renowned architect Paul Rudolph.

"All of the water that has entered the building over the years has deteriorated the structure," Fusco said.

After waterproofing the building, the original shell would be replaced with a new exterior, he and Diana said — a challenge to preservationists who hope to preserve Rudolph's creation.

The Government Center's defenders argue that the county shouldn't be considering an expensive building project in the midst of a poor economy, when many people are struggling to get by. Even some legislators open to the concept of a new complex question the size and cost of what Diana proposed.

Diana, who couldn't be reached for comment Monday and Tuesday, has been adamant that replacing the Government Center makes more financial sense in the long run than renovating it.

"You build a new building, let me tell you, it will be open 80, 90 years," he said last week.